30 YEARBOOK 2026 in regeneration circles. Regeneration plans and proposals often fall silent on listed buildings, scheduled monuments, conservation areas and non-designated heritage assets except where the building in question is considered an ‘iconic’ civic, industrial or entertainment building. Another tactic is to leave the run-down historic buildings outside the regeneration area boundary so they can bask in the benefit of the inevitable ‘enhanced setting’, whatever that may entail, once regeneration is delivered nearby. This is not a criticism of the people who commission, prepare or deliver regeneration frameworks and plans. The point is simply that there should be appropriate heritage expertise at every step of the regeneration process. Otherwise you are sowing the seeds of so-called eleventh-hour heritage objections, or a direct clash with historic environment legislation or national planning policy (the ‘four tests’ for substantial harm to or total loss of designated heritage assets in the NPPF spring to mind). This can lead either to an entrenched position that the scheme will go ahead nonetheless or to hasty revisions, or both. There is frequently the misplaced and hubristic belief in brilliance over bureaucracy: that the sheer design quality and economic impact of a regeneration scheme will triumph over established legislation and policy. This is entirely avoidable. If you want to reduce project risks and achieve an efficient use of budget without deviating from the delivery programme, regeneration programmes need to identify and face their heritage impacts (for better or for worse) headon and with honesty and objectivity. The best way to do this is to have the necessary expertise on the team, whether this is a conservation officer or consultant (IHBC membership, of course, being an excellent indicator of competence!) who can offer objective advice, including how harm could be avoided or minimised, or the identification of previously unthought-of opportunities. The second crucial step is to then embed historic environment advice, recommendations and priorities into strategies, proposals and designs. This way, the regeneration proposals will be a meaningful connection to the regeneration area as a place. I am firmly of the belief that heritage assets offer more strengths and opportunities than they do weaknesses and threats. Over my years of working in built heritage, planning and regeneration both at LUC and local authorities, I have come to understand that historic buildings and spaces are not factors that stifle and constrain regeneration. Instead, they are both important barometers of how well a place is performing economically and socially, and are often also reservoirs of latent potential and embodied carbon in sustainable locations. Recent projects at LUC that have combined the preservation and enhancement of conservation areas with mainstream regeneration activity include Hamilton Square Conservation Area Regeneration Plan in Birkenhead town centre, in the Wirral. This was adopted as SPD (a Supplementary Planning Document that supports existing local plan policies) earlier in 2026. This Historic England-funded pilot bridges the gap between the billion-pound Birkenhead 2040 Regeneration Framework and a traditional conservation area management plan. It identifies how regeneration activity could be harnessed to positively preserve, enhance and revitalise the conservation area. It does this by looking well beyond typical but important management proposals, such as addressing vacant buildings, poor public realm and the loss of building details, to the bigger-picture issues. This includes proposals to address why the area has been unattractive to investors despite its strengths, and why its streets have low footfall despite the area’s accessibility and despite having a significant number of employers, tourist attractions and a college. It also reviews existing regeneration Hamilton Square: late Georgian or early Victorian pieces of urban design such as this crescent of former houses (above) are under threat of being lost forever due to the overall decline in the fortunes of this part of the town centre, despite the strong similarities of much of its townscape (top) to parts of Edinburgh’s New Town or Newcastle’s Graingertown.
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